Friday, January 23, 2004

late bloomer

There's a scene in Middlesex, which I'm reading this week, about how a boy figures out the workings of orgasms, but his sister doesn't. She's used to being close to him and doing everything together, and she feels frustrated and left out because this is one thing they can't share. It takes her another ten years to figure it out.

I've been thinking about this, because sometimes I feel retroactively left out. Apparently some people discover the secrets of masturbating when they're still children. I didn't even know that sex was supposed to feel good (and that was why people did it) until high school, and then it took me another couple of years to put that into practice.

Here's what I think: sex ed tells boys what their penises are for. Sex ed doesn't even tell girls they have clitorises. That's got to be part of it. I'd blame it all on that, except some of the early adopters I've encountered were girls. Chalk it up to me not being the investigative type, I guess.

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